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Gone With The Wind NOT pulled from HBO. It will include a caption


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8 hours ago, Aime said:

I'm half-black (but not American, so I hope @IsaacHarrisand @erotica blu can and will correct me), but I don't see what the deal is. The tone of the movie is racist, but then again, so is the story it is trying to tell (and if we think of how racist the movie industry was in the 30's, it only makes things worse). Should all movies about Nazi Germany be banned because it was a horrible time for humanity?

This is my opinion only, but whenever I hear that so and so was, well, problematic (say, Dietrich and some of the things she's said in private), I try to remember that the time was totally different back then and concentrate on all the progressive or positive things they've done. A lot of people are ignorant but that's because they haven't had a chance to learn about certain things, not because they're evil. Ignorance is certainly better than fake virtue to me. Maybe that's just me.

It's bothersome to me that they went through the effort to do this. Making it seem like Black people in the states are only looking to censor things that upset us. Which is wholly inaccurate.

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HBO is bringing back "Gone with the Wind," but says the film "denies the horrors of slavery" in disclaimer

BY LI COHEN

JUNE 24, 2020 / 8:42 PM / CBS NEWS

Two weeks after removing "Gone with the Wind" from its platform, HBO Max has brought back the Civil War film. But this time, there's a disclaimer acknowledging that "The film's treatment of this world through a lens of nostalgia denies the horrors of slavery, as well as its legacies of racial inequality." 

The disclaimer has two video parts, according to Variety. In one clip, African American cinema expert and Turner Classic Movies host Jacqueline Stewart contextualizes the movie. In another, viewers can watch a panel discussion, "The complicated legacy of 'Gone with the Wind,'" from a 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival. 

In her clip, Stewart explains that the nearly four-hour film depicts "the antebellum South as a world of grace and beauty without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of chattel slavery, upon which this world is based." 

"It is not only a major document of Hollywood's racist practices of the past, but also an enduring work of popular culture that speaks directly to the racial inequalities that persist in media and society today," Stewart explained. 

The highly-acclaimed 1939 film revolves around a romance between the daughter of a southern plantation owner and a wealthy man during the Civil War. Many have said that the movie romanticized the racism that black individuals faced during that time. 

One of the main sources of controversy has been the role of "Mammy," a black slave who lived in Scarlett O'Hara's household. Many have criticized the role, played by award-winning actress Hattie McDaniel, for depicting slavery as a positive force. 

Stewart said in her disclaimer that "Gone with the Wind" reinforces a particular stereotype: "Servants notable for their devotion to their white masters or for their ineptitude." 

The night McDaniel won an Oscar for the role, she was forced to sit in the back of the room, next to the kitchen. 

Ongoing racial injustice protests worldwide fueled calls for the film's removal. Those calls grew after "12 Years a Slave" screenwriter John Ridley wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times saying the movie "perpetuates some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color." 

HBO Max temporarily removed the film on June 10, writing, "These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today." 

"'Gone with the Wind' is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American Society," HBO Max said in a statement when the film was removed. "...we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible."

"These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia's values, so when we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed," the statement added. "If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history."

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On 6/10/2020 at 9:22 PM, VogueMusic said:

I am not one for censorship, especially of artistic works. That's a slippery slope if there ever was one. Everything must be put in the context of its time, or else you are bound to censor everything from the past, which in some form or fashion, is probably problematic. And the racist aspects of this film/story have been addressed for a long time, so it's not as if it's anything entirely new. Teach it, study it, and put in a proper context. People can (and should) be able to hold more than one idea/perspective on something at a time.

I commend TCM (Turner Classic Movies) for saying they don't believe in censorship, but they will address certain subjects/depictions in the intro and/or outro of the films they present, and give context and background to those issues. That's how you should do it. And then let the audience decide if they want to watch or not.

And for the record, this is not a defense of the film. People are free to find it, or anything, offensive...and then decide for themselves what they want to give their time, attention and money to.

Yay! Was thinking this, and have been meaning all week (er, two weeks!) to find some TCM clips of Jacqueline Stewart talking about this -- love her! (Love all the TCM hosts, honestly!) Instead, I only found these, which are not as directly related as I'd hoped, although she makes some oblique references when discussing film history:

But I know I've heard her speak eloquently about films that need to be contextualized for modern audiences.

And now I see I'm super late in doing this, because @Beautiful Killer posted other videos that are more specific to Gone with the Wind from TCM, so -- thanks, BK!  I'm interested to see what they have to share.

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19 hours ago, dcbyebyebaby said:

And its things like this that will keep Republicans winning. Even the comments are saying it was unnessesary

exactly. The left is killing itself.

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